Origins of the Mennonites

The Mennonites can trace their lineage back to Switzerland, Germany, and the Netherlands at the time of the Protestant Reformation. Almost immediately after Martin Luther sparked a revolution in the Catholic Church (and in European society) in 1517, a number of reformers disagreed with him and with the Swiss reformer Ulrich Zwingli over key points of doctrine and practice, most importantly the issues of infant baptism and church hierarchies.

These people, who came to be known as Anabaptists (or re-baptizers), argued that baptism is appropriate only for adults, because it is a sacrament that marks a voluntary, intentional decision to follow Christ by joining the community of believers. In 1525, three former Roman Catholic priests—Georg Blaurock, Conrad Grebel, and Felix Manz—met in Zurich with the express purpose of baptizing each other. These men (who were all executed within a few years because of their beliefs) and their followers called themselves the Swiss Brethren.

Around the same time, Anabaptist movements emerged in the Netherlands and in northern Germany. In Münster in 1534 and 1535, a group of even more radical adult-baptism reformers took over the city, formed a commune in which all property was shared, and practiced polygamy. They were finally overpowered by the authorities, the leaders were executed, and their bodies were placed in cages that were hung from the tower of the city church.

A Dutch Catholic priest named Menno Simons (Menno, son of Simon) first heard of the Anabaptists when someone was beheaded for being (re)baptized as an adult in 1531. Intrigued by the idea of adult baptism, he searched the scriptures and discovered that there was no mention of infants being baptized. In the following years, he came into contact with other Anabaptists and, while still considering them heretics, he was attracted to their religious zeal. Then, in 1535, Menno’s own brother Peter was executed along with a large group of Anabaptists for participating in the violent takeover of the Bloemkamp monastery.

Bloemkamp Abbey

His brother’s death drove Menno into a mental and spiritual crisis, and in January 1536 he left the priesthood and the church and joined the Anabaptists. Over the next few years, he became a prominent leader in the fledgling group. In his preaching and his writing, he emphasized a quiet discipleship of humility and pacifism to counter the radicalism and violence of those Anabaptists who were trying to establish an earthly kingdom of God by attacking the power of the established church. He argued that Christians should refrain from any participation in worldly government, turn the other cheek when abused, and refuse to be involved in any form of violence or aggression in their day-to-day lives.

Menno Simons

Menno’s message of peace and humility obviously struck a chord with the early Dutch Anabaptists. By 1544, the terms Mennist, Mennoist, and Mennonite were being used to identify these reformers. Menno’s message spread to Anabaptists throughout western Europe, and the Swiss Brethren eventually identified themselves as Mennonites.

Despite the new emphasis on a quiet and peaceful discipleship, Catholic, Lutheran, and Reformed authorities continued to denounce, fine, jail, banish, and kill the Anabaptists because of their association with the Münster and Bloemkamp rebels and their heterodox beliefs—adult baptism of believers, separation of church and state, the use of excommunication in church discipline, and the refusal to bear arms or swear oaths. Because of this persecution and the almost constant wars in western Europe during the 16^th to 18^th centuries, Anabaptists migrated across Europe to places where the authorities were tolerant if not sympathetic.

A number of South German Anabaptists ended up in Moravia (eastern Czechia) in the 1530s and 40s, many converted through the teaching of Georg Blaurock. Under the leadership of Jakob Hut, the Moravian Anabaptists adopted a communal lifestyle, and came to be known as the Hutterites. In the 1600s, their communities were disrupted by the Thirty Years War, and they migrated to Transylvania (present-day Romania). In the 1770s, they migrated to Ukraine. In the 1870s, many migrated to the western USA and Canada.

As early as the 1530s, a large number of Dutch Mennonites migrated to the Vistula delta around the city of Danzig; in the 1770s, at the invitation of Catherine the Great, many moved to Ukraine. These Mennonites of Dutch origin were subsequently known as the Russian Mennonites. Meanwhile, many of the Swiss Mennonites migrated to the Palatinate-Lower Rhineland area of what was to become Germany. In 1693, Jakob Ammann and a group of followers left the Swiss-German Mennonites over the use of excommunication and shunning, the frequency of communion, and other issues. This group came to be known as the Amish, after Jakob Ammann.

In the late 17^th century, William Penn invited the Quakers, Mennonites, and Amish of southern Germany to settle in his new colony in North America. Not only were these people still subject to discrimination and persecution, but the Rhineland was highly contested and frequently changed hands in the wars between France and Germany. In 1683, a group of 12 families, including Quakers and Mennonites, crossed the ocean and settled in the area of what is now Germantown, Pennsylvania. This group became known as the Franconia Conference, which for several centuries maintained different practices than the later immigrants. In the early part of the 18^th century, some 100,000 Germans left the Palatinate for Pennsylvania, where they became known as the Pennsylvania Dutch (Deutsch, meaning “German” in German). These included about 2500 Mennonites and 500 Amish, who settled primarily in Lancaster County.

Mennonite Migrations in Europe 1530 – 1800
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 Sources:

“Anabaptism,” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anabaptism.

various articles in Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Welcome_to_GAMEO.